Author: Anita Westervelt

  • Anita’s Blog — Great Caterpillar Finds

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    Anita Westervelt
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    I was so overcome by the spectacular beauty of a trio of lluvia de oro flowering cascades one morning I nearly gathered them in my arms for a grateful hug — until I was unceremoniously halted by horizontal black stipes right before my nose! A caterpillar! One of the most beautiful trees in the world,…

  • Behold, what’s on that smelly vine!

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    Anita Westervelt

    Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist It’s always exciting to find a big caterpillar munching away on leaves of vines or other plants. Recently, a really big caterpillar appeared before my eyes as I was eradicating a vine that was over-powering a huge Berlandier’s fiddlewood shrub (Citharexylum berlandieri). The vine was what…

  • Anita’s Blog — Dandelions Part 2

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    Anita Westervelt
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    They weren’t always weeds. Somewhere before recorded history, amid the Dark Ages (5th – 15th centuries), the common dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, was an herb — an important medicine and food plant. By the mid-1600s, European settlers had brought this rare and precious plant to America. Jump through history to the present and Texas Master Naturalists,…

  • Anita’s blog — Of Dandelions & Ditches

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    Anita Westervelt
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    The Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) was the most observed species — globally — in this year’s iNaturalist/City Nature Challenge. How cool is that?!  — 246 cities in 40 countries joined the annual event — 12 more countries participated than in 2019. Who doesn’t love a dandelion? Every kid’s first delight as soon as they’re let…

  • Let the mockingbird sing you a love song

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    Anita Westervelt

    Story photo by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist Mockingbirds are ramping up their antics. They’re more entertaining. They’re braver — landing near your feet to snag an insect from the grass, and then darting away with it clutched in their beak. And more daring — chasing larger birds, like grackles, through the air — most…

  • Anita’s Blog — Something for Everyone

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    Anita Westervelt
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    This is fun, easy and relaxing. If you’re still cautious about keeping your distance but finding you’re running out of self-isolation projects, stay home and consider building an objet d’art. Clean trash sculpture, found objects art, trash art, junk art, funk art, repurposing, recycling, temporary-relief-from-anxiety art — call it what you want, it’s a project…